S&W M&P9 teething issues

wprotz

wprotz

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Hey guys, my awesome girlfriend bought me a M&P9 for christmas :D. The finish and feel of the M&P is awesome, no complaints. As this is my first handgun though I do have some questions.

1) The mags only fit 9 rounds. These are factory 10 round mags. I have left 9 rounds in them for 3 days now and still cannot get that 10th one in. Normal?

2) The trigger is BRUTAL. Feels like its grinding on sandpaper when I dry fire. Is this just a matter of shooting it and working it in?

3) Can someone recommend a solid brand of ammo to break this new blaster in?

As a final thought, I have no issues with the M&P, I love the gun and I think these are minor issues that just need to be worked out. Thanks for the help.
 
I have the M&P 9Pro. Similar issue with the magazines - you need to use force in order to get the 10th round in. Also makes loading the gun pretty hard. I already put at least 1,500 rounds in-and-out of my mags, and only now are they slowly starting to loosen up.

The Pro's trigger is suposedly better than the standard M&P, so I didn't upgrade mine. However, I heard that quite a few M&P shooters revert to Apex Tactical's products in order to improve the trigger pull.
 
wprotz said:
Hey guys, my awesome girlfriend bought me a M&P9 for christmas :D. The finish and feel of the M&P is awesome, no complaints.
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Sounds like she's bucking for a diamond ring....tread carefully...;)

wprotz said:
1) The mags only fit 9 rounds. These are factory 10 round mags. I have left 9 rounds in them for 3 days now and still cannot get that 10th one in. Normal?
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Yeah, the mags can be tough. My .40 mags weren't bad, but they took some effort as well.

wprotz said:
2) The trigger is BRUTAL. Feels like its grinding on sandpaper when I dry fire. Is this just a matter of shooting it and working it in?
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Yes, almost certainly. Many M&P shooters find that it takes a few hundred or even a couple of thousand rounds to get the trigger to a decent state. There are online resources for improving the M&P trigger, or you can get an APEX kit from Brownells and install it yourself quite easily. The hard sear and USB help a lot. My .40 has improved a lot after about 1000 rounds, and my .45 was horrible and gritty but now has an Apex kit and is really good.

wprotz said:
3) Can someone recommend a solid brand of ammo to break this new blaster in? As a final thought, I have no issues with the M&P, I love the gun and I think these are minor issues that just need to be worked out. Thanks for the help.
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Any decent brand of ammo should work fine, including commercial reloads or bulk surplus stuff. The M&P isn't generally picky about ammo.

Yes, the M&P is a great platform. I feel it's a big improvement on the Glock, in my own view anyway. Have fun with it!
 
Thanks for the responses guys. Yea I am treading carefully lol. Maybe if she got me a M&P9, 1000 rounds AND a new NEA 15 I would be ring shopping ;) but thats just selfish...right???

Anyways, this is what I figured. Im glad others have had these minor issues as it means I don't have a lemon lol. Yea that apex kit is worth looking into. I think ill put a couple hundred through her first, see how it smooths out and go from there.

My thumbs are pretty girly so Uplula it is! ;)
 
Yeah I remember the mags being tight in mine too. I was always able to get the 10th round in though without affecting function. The trigger does kinda suck, I didn't put enough rounds through mine to notice if it softened up. My M&P ate everything I fed it without issue.
 
Hokus Grey said:
They hold 10....barely. Some of my M&P9 mags have been used a lot over the last 2 years and they are still a pain to get that last round in. By an Uplula mag loader, I hear that's what dudes with girly thumbs are using.

;)
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As a dude with girly thumbs, I concur - get an Uplula, they work on all sorts of pistol mags and let you spend time at the range actually shooting, rather then stuffing mags. To smooth out the trigger, you can try polishing the contact surfaces with metal polish, or just get an Apex set up and be done with it forever. As far as ammo goes, if it's functional, it'll work

PS if you think the 9 mags are a pain, try the M&P 45 mags - Ouch! That's the gun that convinced me to shell out for the Uplula.
 
You won't notice the gritty feeling when you are firing the gun. Slow dry firing is not the same as firing double taps.

I have a new PRO and an older FS M&P. I installed the Apex Competition kit in my PRO and now have a very smooth 3# trigger from the stock 5.25# trigger. I then installed the PRO parts with an Apex sear into the FS and now have a very good PRO trigger in my FS with a pull of 4#s. I intend to put the PRO sear n the gun to bring it back to stock S&W parts. Trigger pull should return to 5.25#'s which meets IPSC Production requirements.

You will find the trigger will become a lot smoother over time as the parts wear in a bit.

My FS has over 4K through it and has yet to have a failure of any kind. Gun is very accurate and a pleasure to shoot.

Take Care

Bob
 
The day I got my M&P mags is the day I ordered an Uplula, lol... I would load/unload/load/unload the mags while watching TV. Leaving them full isn't really going to do much...if anything..You need to work the spring (compress/decompress) to get it to soften up.

As the other guys said, the trigger will get much better once you get a few rounds through it. You should see a noticeable difference after 500-1000 rounds, it will continue to get better for a while after that too.

I've had mine a couple years now and have ~10'000 rounds through it. It will eat pretty much anything, I've found my reloads have to be seated a little deep, Aim/Frontier 124grs are running about 1.110".

She doesn't mind being a dirty girl either! lol. I've gone a couple thousand rounds between cleanings, other than a little oil on the slide rails, and she runs like a champ.

After you get about 500 rounds through it, if you seat the mag with some force, she'll start dropping the slide on her own.

If you couldn't tell I love mine, lol, and I'm sure you'll be happy with yours.
 
I had trouble with my .40 magazines , both the ones that came with the gun and new ones i bought ..

Did a bit of reading and followed one suggestion that involved sanding the follower legs a bit , which helped a little bit but not much so i simply trimmed 1 coil off each spring and i could fit the 10th in easily but not 11 ..
 
wprotz said:
1) The mags only fit 9 rounds. These are factory 10 round mags. I have left 9 rounds in them for 3 days now and still cannot get that 10th one in. Normal?
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Check this out:

http://smith-wessonforum.com/smith-wesson-m-p-pistols/203481-m-p-9mm-10-round-magazine.html
 
Leaving 9 rounds in the mag for a month won't help. Using the springs will lighten them up over time. When you load the mags after about six or seven rounds tap the mag on your knee, then continue loading. The mags are designed to take 10 rounds and will, albeit the new ones can be a struggle.

Take Care

Bob
 
Kc.338Lp said:
I had trouble with my .40 magazines , both the ones that came with the gun and new ones i bought ..

Did a bit of reading and followed one suggestion that involved sanding the follower legs a bit , which helped a little bit but not much so i simply trimmed 1 coil off each spring and i could fit the 10th in easily but not 11 ..
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Sanding or altering will void the warranty. Don't do it.
 
I installed an Apex Tactical hard sear in my M&P 9 Pro, but it didn't make enough of an improvement so I sold it. I also bought the striker block but I haven't installed it yet; maybe over Christmas.

The Uplula is not going to help you get the 10th round in because the bar that holds the follower+stacked rounds down is too thick and there's not enough room to fit the 10th round in. Also, you will get taunted when you use one in public at the range. What I do is smack the base of the mag on a hard surface and that seems to seat the rounds a bit better before loading the 10th.
 
DrXenon said:
I installed an Apex Tactical hard sear in my M&P 9 Pro, but it didn't make enough of an improvement so I sold it. I also bought the striker block but I haven't installed it yet; maybe over Christmas.

The Uplula is not going to help you get the 10th round in because the bar that holds the follower+stacked rounds down is too thick and there's not enough room to fit the 10th round in. Also, you will get taunted when you use one in public at the range. What I do is smack the base of the mag on a hard surface and that seems to seat the rounds a bit better before loading the 10th.
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You will notice the difference with the striker block immediately. The whole kit though is the way to go. I have the Competition Kit in my PRO and there is no comparison between the stock PRO and the PRO with the kit in it. The APEX sear does improve the reset significantly compared to the PRO sear and I am surprised you didn't notice the difference.

Take Care

Bob
 
Powderfinger61 said:
You got to be smarter than the Mag.

I have the Uplula mag loader and it works great for my MP9 and .45.

I look at this way, Work smart not hard.
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yep,the Uplula is the way to go for sure. All 10 of my M&P mags are a ##### to get the 10th round into and the Uplula has made life a lot easier at the range.
 
Canuck44 said:
You will notice the difference with the striker block immediately. The whole kit though is the way to go. I have the Competition Kit in my PRO and there is no comparison between the stock PRO and the PRO with the kit in it. The APEX sear does improve the reset significantly compared to the PRO sear and I am surprised you didn't notice the difference.

Take Care

Bob
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I'm thinking about installing the Apex kit in my Pro Series also. How hard is it to install the striker block? Would you consider installing the Apex RAM?
 
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